A.M. Market numbers: Friday, July 31, 2009

| North American markets | International markets | Bonds | Currency | Commodities |

North American markets appear set to extend the previous day’s gains on Friday ahead of a key reading on the overall output of the U.S. economy during the second quarter.

Asian markets pushed higher on the strength of the U.S. market, while European indexes traded in a narrow range after surging ahead a day earlier on strong earnings.

Markets in Toronto and New York restarted a two-week rally on Thursday, pushing some major U.S. indexes to their highest closes since last fall.

Canadian investors took heart from stronger-than-expected earnings reports from such corporate heavyweights as Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX) and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (TSX:CP), as well as a spike in comodity prices.

While earnings reports drove Thursday’s gains, investors will be squarely focused on the U.S. quarterly gross domestic product report, which measures all the goods and services produced within the counry.

The GDP report is likely to show the economy continued to shrink in the second quarter, but the pace of that decline slowed.

Analysts expect GDP declined 1.5% during the second quarter, compared with a 5.5% annualized drop the previous quarter.

Smaller spending cuts by businesses, increased government spending and improving trade probably helped the economy during the second quarter as it tries to rebound. However, consumers continued to cut back on their spending amid continued increases in unemployment and a still struggling housing market.

Thursday’s trade saw sharp gains in Canadian markets, with Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index rebounding 221.39 points to 10,676.72 after two days of losses.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials were ahead 83.74 points to 9,154.46, well off an intraday surge of 112 points.

Ahead of Friday’s market open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 43, or 0.5%, to 9,133. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 4.00, or 0.4%, at 986.20, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 1.25, or 0.1%, to 1,608.00.

The Canadian dollar opened at 92.68 cents US, up 0.45 of a cent from Thursday’s close.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery was down 32 cents to US$66.62 a barrel by midday European time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.9%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index moved ahead 1.7%. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.03%, Germany’s DAX index declined 0.1%, and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.1%.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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Dow Jones	9,154.46	+83.74 or +0.92%	+4.31%
S&P 500	986.75	+11.60 or 1.19%	+9.24%
NASDAQ	1,984.30	+16.54 or +0.84%	+25.83%
TSX Composite	10,676.72	+221.39 or +2.12%	+18.79%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,356.83	+191.62 or +1.89%%	+16.90%
Hang Seng	20,573.33	+339.25 or +1.68%	+42.99%
SENSEX	15,670.31	+282.35 or +1.83%	+62.43%
FTSE 100	4,642.11	+10.50 or +0.23%	+4.69%
CAC 40	3,442.50	+7.01 or +0.20%	+6.98%
DAX	5,362.02	+1.36 or +0.03%	+11.47%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	101.58	101.76	3.56
Cdn. 30-year bond	115.89	115.84	4.04
U.S. 10-year bond	96.00	95.59	3.61
U.S. 30-year bond	97.21	95.00	4.42

Currency

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BoC Open	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9268	0.9222
US $	1.0789	1.0844

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6549	0.6556
Euro	1.5269	1.5254

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$ 936.50	$932.50

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$67.08	+$0.14 or +0.21%

(07/31/09)